Ken Ham stirs up England

From Prime Minister Tony Blair to schoolboys in Leicester, it
seems everyone’s talking about Ken Ham’s recent meetings in the United Kingdom.

Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis-US, began his
17-day tour of the UK and Spain on 6 March 2002. His first major stop
was Emmanuel College in northeast England, where on Saturday (9 March) he
spoke on “The relevance of Genesis” and “A young Earth is not the issue.”

“Creationist teachers … are undermining the scientific teaching of biology.”

“[They] are, no doubt, harmless wingnuts, more harmless than the Holocaust-deniers
whom they resemble.”

“Any science teacher who denies that the world is billions (or even millions!)
of years old is teaching children a preposterous, mind-shrinking falsehood.”

Who would have expected such vitriol in the newspapers just because
a US speaker had given a couple hours of talks on the authority of the Bible
at a small British school?

But the passionate hatred of creationism has been percolating
through the nation, reaching all the way to parliament. It seems that
they don’t want any of that “American religious extremism” reaching their shores.

Creation Museum mocked in UK’s Daily Telegraph

“I just read the article in the Telegraph about the AiG museum. I just wanted to say
‘thank you’ for helping to equip people to understand the greatest
deception of our time [evolution]. Keep up the good work! God bless
you.”
-M.P. (by e-mail)

The timing of these news stories is amazing. While the world
media was turning its eyes to the panel debate on “intelligent design”
in Ohio, USA, 11 March (see Ohio—First US State to Teach “Intelligent Design”?), another story quietly appeared in
the Sunday edition (10 March) of the Daily Telegraph, a major British
paper with a circulation of over a million. The story, titled “Fundamentalists
re-create Eden, with dinosaurs,” opens: “American scientists are outraged
over plans” by AiG-US to build a $14 million Creation Museum in Northern
Kentucky.

The article, written by David Poole in Los Angeles, is filled
with outlandish errors. For instance:

Daily Telegraph article says

The truth

“A recent survey
in the magazine Scientific American reported that 45 per cent of Americans believe that
God created life some time in the past 10,000 years.”

Scientific
American (February 2002) quotes a
Gallup poll, and 45 percent of the respondents said God created humans-not
“life”-in the past 10,000 years.1

“Two years ago
the Kansas Board of Education reversed a decision to ban mentions of Darwin
in schools.”

The teaching of
evolution in classrooms was unaffected by the board’s action-the board
simply cut a few references to evolution in the state science standards.2

The proposal is to allow teachers to discuss difficulties with evolutionary theory.

“Ohio is proposing
a similar initiative to forbid teaching of scientific evolution.”

The proposal is
to allow teachers to discuss difficulties with evolutionary theory.3

Such errors are indicative of the press’s careless treatment of
the facts. How can readers trust the opinions of these media moguls, if
they can’t even get their facts right?

Without any attempt at impartiality, the reporter picked Eugenie
Scott (an atheist and rabid opponent of AiG) to comment on AiG’s museum.
Poole summarized her views this way: “The new creationist museum [is] a sermon
disguised as scientific study intended to hoodwink the public.” So much
for objective reporting.

Ohio education debate-redux in Gateshead, England?

An alarmed press reported on Ken Ham’s meetings in the UK,
which began in early March. Richard Dawkins, vice president of the British
Humanist Association, opened the attack with a scathing editorial in the Guardian
(9 March 2002). His tirade, “A
scientist’s view,” likened creationists to “Holocaust deniers”
who want to “infiltrate the staff of an otherwise reputable school, and
energetically promote their inanities to a susceptible generation.”
He closed with near-religious adulation of the role of evolutionary teachers
in spreading the faith:

“Any science teacher who denies that the world is billions (or even
millions!) of years old is teaching children a preposterous, mind-shrinking
falsehood. These men disgrace the honourable profession of teacher.
By comparison, real teachers, teachers who respect truth and evidence whether
in science or history, have so much more to offer. Today’s children
are blessed with the opportunity to open their minds to the shattering wonder
of their own existence, the nature of life and its remarkable provenance in
a yet more remarkable universe. Teachers who help to open young minds
perform a duty which is as near sacred as I will admit. Ignorant, closed-minded,
false teachers who stand in their way come as close as I can reckon to committing
true sacrilege.”

Emmanuel, classified as a “beacon school,” is one of the Labour
government’s recent experiments in supporting private faith schools. The
national Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) has given the school high
marks, and parents are clamoring to get their students into the school-in fact,
only a small percentage of students who apply are admitted. The school
head, Nigel McQuoid, is an ardent Bible-believer. Some of the teachers
at this non-denominational secondary school are creationists, and in the words
of the Guardian, they “are undermining the scientific teaching of biology
in favour of persuading pupils of the literal truth of the Bible.”4

McQuoid opened his facilities for Ken Ham and AiG-UK on 9 March
to hold a one-day creationist conference, although the Saturday meeting was
not officially sponsored by the school. (An outside group rented the facilities
and invited AiG to speak.) Andy
McIntosh and Stuart Burgess were the two other speakers.

The media response to the Guardian articles was intense.
In fact, a member of parliament, Jenny Tonge, challenged Prime Minister Tony
Blair during question time about his views on reports that a school in the Northeast
(Emmanuel) was teaching creationism alongside evolution. Although he sidestepped
the issue a bit, he acknowledged that diversity is a good thing. His comments
sparked BBC to conclude,

“There is a serious side to all this. Many people are deeply worried
that, by encouraging faith schools, the prime minister is also encouraging
sectarianism and the placing of faith before science. Others believe
it is only right that those with strongly held beliefs are allowed to educate
their children in the way they wish. It is an argument that has not
yet been joined but, thanks to the prime minister’s question time performance,
is now set to become a major talking point.”5

That same day (13 March), scientists called for an Ofsted review
of Emmanuel’s teaching qualifications. It is likely that they will also
demand a review of the UK’s national curriculum, which currently allows teachers
to give any viewpoint on origins science (unlike schools in the US, where the
US Supreme Court effectively barred such teaching in 1987).

It’s exciting to see how God’s enemies are bringing national
attention-free of charge-to AiG’s efforts to defend the authority of God’s Word,
and to call the languishing church in the UK back to its roots in Genesis!

Please pray for Ken Ham, as he brings this life-changing message
to Spain next week.

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Answers in Genesis is an apologetics ministry, dedicated to helping Christians defend their faith and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ effectively. We focus on providing answers to questions about the Bible—particularly the book of Genesis—regarding key issues such as creation, evolution, science, and the age of the earth.